Of course, to go with this syrup I needed some pancakes, which meant enlisting Taylor into my breakfast army. Originally he just started making silver dollar pancakes (Sym’s request), but then he busted out my pancake molds and got fancy. I actually bought these a million years ago, but my lack of pancake skills and everyone else’s unwillingness to try them meant they’ve been sitting unused in the drawer since about 2005 or so. But Taylor is awesome, so we got pancakes shaped like the frog prince…

… a princess, and some unicorns.

We served them with my mandarin orange syrup (so yummy, but I over-thickened mine a little) and fresh raspberries.

I mentioned yesterday that Sym was home sick from school, and today she’s even worse. Hot, col, feverish, tired, and definitely not well enough to go to her dad’s tonight. Poor little sweetie 🙁

She was feeling especially terrible this afternoon, so I made her a little snack- toast triangles (toast is better in triangle form) and fresh-squeezed mandarin orange juice.

Mandarin Orange Juice
Ingredients:
• 6 mandarins

Squeeze the juice from mandarins; strain through a fine sieve to remove seeds and pulp.

In case you were wondering, mandarins are a huge hassle to juice- the peel is thin and tears easily, and after straining out the seeds and pulp you aren’t left with much juice. BUT it’s super delicious and has restorative powers!

So even though I used all twelve lemons I had, I’ve decided to do another round of citrus recipes. It’s fun, and I like that it challenges me to find new things to cook! To help me find new recipes, I’ve started using Foodily, which is an AWESOME site, you should totally check it out!

(I know there are more than 12 in the bowl, but unlike lemons, these are going to get eaten.)

Since there aren’t any pictures of my outfit from Jaime’s wedding, here’s a video! Sym would only dance with me if I held her hands the whole time- at the end I let go and she just stands there, and I’m like “WHAT??!!”

Saturday, April 23rd
shirt, misappropriated from Taylorskirt, Zarashoes, the Gap

I don’t have canning jars, but I do have baby food jars. Lots and lots of baby food jars. It a hazard of the trade, really. For this recipe I used six 4oz jars. If you also have baby food jars, the first thing you want to do is make sure all the label and label adhesive is removed, or it’ll stink up your cakes. I removed mine with a combination of an exacto knife, hot water and rubbing alcohol, but I don’t recommend this technique as I ended up stabbing the crap out of my thumb (this is why I over-candied my candied lemon slices). Anyway just get all the labels and adhesive off any way you can and then wash and dry the jars thoroughly.

To make six cakes, I made two-thirds of the batter in the recipe (except for the lemon juice & zest; I think I used much more of those than was required). This means I had some pretty stupid measurements but bear with me.Cake Ingredients:
• 2 cups flour
• 1⅓ tsp baking powder
• ⅔ tsp salt
• ⅓ cup butter
• ¾ cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1⅓ tsp vanilla
• juice of 1 lemon
• zest of 1 lemon
• ⅔ cup milk
• yellow food colouring (optional)

TOTALLY REASONABLE. Anyway.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat the inside of the jars with non-stick cooking spray.

In a bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla, lemon juice and lemon zest.

Add in flour mixture, alternating with milk (note: I used nowhere near ⅔ of a cup of milk, so watch your consistency). Mix until smooth.

Spoon batter into jars until they are about ⅔ full.

OR

Spoon batter into jars until they are ⅓ full. Mix yellow food colouring into the remaining batter, then fill jars the rest of the way to ⅔ full.

Place jars in a shallow baking dish, adding ¼” of water to the dish. Place the dish in the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes.

Once cakes are fully cooked (the tops should spring back when pressed lightly), remove the jars from the oven & dish and allow to cool completely. Once cooled, if the batter has risen into the mouth of the jar, scoop the top of the cake out of the jar before icing.

I piped the icing into the mouths of the jars, but you could (probably much more) easily scoop it in with a spoon. Once cakes are iced, top with yellow sprinkles and serve! These are perfect for parties OR party favours, box lunches, after school snacks, or even just furtively eating alone in the middle of the night. I mean. I didn’t do that, but I could have.

I didn’t have lids for the baby food jars so I inverted a yellow cupcake liner over each one and secured it with an elastic. For Taylor and Sym’s lunches I tied a small spoon around them with twine.

(She’s home sick from school.)

lemons used: 1; lemons remaining: 0

There! I’m done! I used all twelve lemons in just one week, and I was even out of town for a couple of days. Thank goodness that’s over…

lol I look ridiculous BUT I was performing the valuable service of opening champagne bottles here.

Which reminds me…

Since we had a few hours to kill between the ceremony and the reception Taylor had the brilliant idea of going for ice cream. And yes, he has Blizzard in his beard here.

The reception was fun. Truth be told, I normally haaaaaaaaaaaate weddings (pls see: my elopement). I hate assigned tables, I hate having to wait until it’s my “turn” to get food, which is always lame anyway. I hate when you’re forced to sit through the inevitable slideshow. HOWEVER. Jaime’s reception was not a drag at all. There was no seating chart, you got to get food whenever you wanted (and it was good!), the slideshow just played and you could look at it or not. I have to say, A+ wedding reception Jaime, I’ll definitely come to your next one. KIDDING ;P

Father-daughter dance :*)

Some other kind of dance, haha.

TRY TO SPOT ME HERE.

idk who I’m side-eying here but it’s pretty epic.

Symphony signed the guestbook for us.

She also drew a bunch of pictures in a little book I brought for her. Stuff like this.

Oh, Sym.

Anyway, we ended up leaving early (i.e. 10:30) because Sym had a headache, and I ended up getting sick on the drive back to Taylor’s moms’ house. The next morning Sym was the lucky recipient of THREE Easter baskets, but we didn’t get any pictures because had to quickly pack everything up so we could head home. It was a very nice trip, but not super relaxing, so I’m extra glad I took Monday off as well!

I need a drink, so I made this, The Roger Collins. It’s like a Tom Collins, except I named it after everyone’s favorite Robert Redford-lookalike English teacher-slash-student newspaper advisor from Sweet Valley High.

Juice one lemon and strain the seeds and pulp. Mix the strained lemon juice with sugar and gin; pour over ice in a rocks glass (I know a collins glass would be more appropriate but I don’t have any? Weird. TIME TO SHOP!). Top with club soda and clutch in your white-knuckled game seven hand.

Next up: candied lemon slices! You can eat these on their own or use them to decorate cupcakes or other treats (i.e. cocktails). Unfortunately, mine didn’t turn out perfect; I overcooked (overcandied?) them slightly because I was busy attending to a self-inflicted stab wound I got on my thumb while scraping labels off baby food jars for another project. Being crafty is hard, you guys 🙁

Sym spent a lot of time perfectly organizing all the toys on her bed and wanted me to share her pictures with you all (although, I seem to recall there being a rule about only having five toys on the bed at a time…)

This stuffed strawberry is a new addition, I bought it for her on Sunday when we stopped at Ikea on our way home from Kelowna.